Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/1367

sit within three months. The Monarch appoints the president and
vice-presidents of the Senate from members of the Senate only ;
the Congress elects its own Officials. Tlie Monarch and each of the
legislative chambers can take tlu^ initiative in the laws. The Con-
gress has the right of impeaching the ministers before the Senate.

The Constitution of June 30, 1876, further enacts that the Monarch is
inviolable, but his ministers are respdnsilile, and that all his decrees must
be countersigned by one of them. The Cortes must approve his marriage
before he can contract it, and the King cannot marry any one excluded by
law from the succession to the crdwn. Should the lines of the legitimate
descendants of the late Alphonso XII. become extinct, the succession shall
be in this order — first, to his sisters ; next to his aunt and her legitimate
descendants ; and next to those of his uncles, the brothers of Fernando VII.,
'unless they have been excluded.' If all the lines become extinct, 'the
nation will elect its Monarch. '

The executive is vested, under the Monarch, in a Council of Ministers,
as follows, March 4, 1899 : —

Minister of Agriculture and Commerce and of Public Works. — Senot
Cardenas.

The Ministry of the Colonies was abolished February 10, 1899.

II. Local Government.

The various provinces and communes of Spain are governed by the
provincial and municipal laws. Every commune has its own elected
Ayuntamiento, consisting of from five to thirty-nine Regidores, or Conce-
jales, and presided over by the Alcalde, at whose side stand, in the largel'
to^vns, several Tenientes Alcaldes. The entire municipal government, with
power of taxation, is vested in the Ayuntamientos. Half the members
are elected every two years, and they appoint the Alcalde, the executive
functionary, from their own body. In the larger towns he may be appointed
by the King. Members cannot be re-elected until after two years. Each
province of Spain has its own Parliament, the Diputacion Provincial, the
members of which are elected by the constituencies. The Diputaciones
Provinciales meet in annual session, and are permanently represented by
the Comission Provincial, a committee elected every year. The Constitution
of 1876 secures to the Diputaciones Provinciales and the Ayuntamientos
the government and administration of the respective provinces and com-
munes. Neither the national executive nor the Cortes have the right
to interfere in the established municipal and provincial administration,
except in the case of the action of the Diputaciones Provinciales and
Ayuntamientos going beyond the locally limited sphere to the injury of
general and permanent interests. In the Basque provinces self-government
has been almost abolished since the last civil war, and they are ruled as
the rest of Spain. Notwithstanding the provisions of the Con.stitution,
pressure is too frequently brought to bear upon the local elections by the
Central Government. '